A Marquis and a Knight fined for careless driving

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A Marquis and a Knight have been foundguilty of driving carelessly on the A75 Gretna – Stranraer Euro-route.

The Marquis of Headfort Thomas Taylour,53, was fined £600 and banned from driving for six months.

Sir Richard Dashwood, 61, wasfined £600 and eight penalty points.

Sir Richard Dashwood Credit: Bob Geddes

The Marquis of Headford Credit: Bob Geddes

They had been accused of driving dangerously and at speeds of up to 112mph on the Gatehouse of Fleet bypass last November on a 60mph road.

Sheriff Kenneth Robb found both had been guilty of careless driving at speeds in excess of 60mph and up to 90mph on November 13 2011.

Sir Richard, a stockbroker, of Sandford St Martin, Oxfordshire, and Taylour, a consultant to an estate agency, of Cadogan Street, London, had been on their way to a dinner at Portpatrick when traffic officers claimed they had ‘clocked’ them at 112mph on the bypass.

But the defence agents argued that there was no corroboration that the laser speed detection device had been on the first car, an Audi Estate driven by Sir Richard when Constable Stewart McNeil registered a speed of 112mph.

Sir Richard’s advocate, Paul Brown also disputed the distance between the two vehicles after the two officers estimated them to be driving at between 30 and 35 metres apart.

The Constable told the Court: “I was pointing the device between the headlights of the first vehicle. We first noticed the vehicles by the noise generated by their tyres and then realised they were travelling at excessive speed by visual contact.”

He said the first vehicle was the Audi and the second a Mercedes Jeep and added: “The second vehicle was at a uniform distance behind the other. I estimated it at 30metres and no more than 35.

“There was no chance that the red dot in the device was on the second car first and then moved to the leading vehicle. We had to travel at speeds of up to nearly 120mph to catch up on them.”

Constable Thomas Paterson, who was in the passenger seat said his colleague took the reading at 112mph and they were quite simply travelling at a uniform distance.